Author: Oona Gilbertson

We have two new families at school and would like to give them a warm welcome.

Two sisters and two brothers!

We hope you will be very happy and we can see you’ve already made some friends too.

Eyam also welcomes Michael – a new member of the MAST Team who will be leading worship once a half term. Mr Tinker is a familiar face as he also leads the school choir and is a Governor too. Mr Fentem (also called Michael) has now retired from MAST after many, many years of taking worship each half term at Eyam – we will miss his props and his magic as well as his Bible stories.

ALSO a big cuddly return from Tiger and Angel who’ve been very well looked after over the summer – various kind offers of hospitality were gratefully received.

We were so very impressed with the Sports Leader, Mini Leaders and Healthy Heros for their dedication to promoting the sports values in 2017 that Mrs Gaywood invited Janice Price (the Sports Partnership Leader for Rural Derbyshire) to visit the school and see lunch time in action. The sun shone and the children talked about all they do to enhance play experiences for each other as well as the skills they have subsequently developed.

The children talked passionately about helping others to become more determined. The Sports Squad Team have worked well together to improve self belief in many children.

Look at the Sports pages to see what we’ve done each month to develop all these skills as well as improve our sporting abilities.

Special thanks to the Lunch staff who organise and support many of our clubs – always helping the children be creative and have fun! Mrs Price was extremely impressed with their input and the children’s enthusiasm and organisation. She wrote an email to Mrs Gilbertson the following morning – here are some snippets. We were so proud of you all!

I just wanted to let you know what a fabulous day I had yesterday at Eyam seeing your amazing sports leaders in action. Rarely these days do I get the opportunity to see first hand the results of the Conferences & the training we put on for schools and colleagues across the partnership. Yesterday was an exception, & I can tell you I was so impressed with everything I saw. I can say honestly, in all my years of teaching I have never seen such outstanding leadership skills in action. This goes for the pupils and staff alike.

I was truly inspired to see so much physical activity and engagement. The leaders spoke passionately about their roles in running mini-leaders and they delivered a great session for reception/KS1 which the children really enjoyed. The lady who set this up 7 years ago is simply marvellous, what a star! Similarly, the midday who attended our C4L champions Conference in March has really inspired the students who also ran a superb lunchtime club where children listened respectfully, had lots of fun and played the games fairly and without any arguments. It was a delight to see.

In the entire two hours of my visit I didnt see a single child who wasn’t engaged in sport and physical activity either as a participant or as a leader. The leaders were nothing short of exceptional, planning engaging sessions and leading with confidence, reitterating the School Games values and what’s more, demonstrating them in every way through their behaviour. Such outstanding role models.

What an amazing team of adults you have at Eyam working together to set this us & who themselves demonstrate everything that is great and good in terms of helping young people to develop skills, confidence and self esteem through sports leadership. Not to mention the benefits of keeping young people active.

We are thrilled to announce that our dedication to work as an effective school team has been recognised and we have been awarded the STOP Anti-bullying Award!

We have a dedicated Friendship Forum made up of children from across the school who have received specific training on developing a happy play time for everyone – playing games and being on duty to help everyone find friends to play with. They have also bought new resources and ensure everyone takes turns as well as having a go at Mini-Leaders and some of the lunch time sports clubs too.

As well as learning about different aspects of bullying in class the children have promoted and discussed what to do if they feel unhappy – who to talk to and what help they will get.

The House Captains have lead discussions with their houses and carried out questionnaires and presented their new children’s Anti-bullying Policy.

These are on display on the children’s notice board.

Well done everyone the Governors would also like to say how pleased they are of your team spirit of helpfulness, growing respect and in developing responsibility.

Whether it was running, throwing, jumping, speed, agility or simply taking part as one of the team, there was something for everyone. The sun shone and the parents enjoyed the new relay and sprint races. Each team represented a local ‘house’ Chatsworth, Haddon, Pevril and Hardwick and the competition was intense. We all thanked Mrs Gaywood for such a great afternoon with the Eyam Team! (the pictures do open fully if you click on them!) Enjoy some of the action.

The children entertained us for an afternoon performance of instrumental music. Solos, duets, trios and the lively ‘Band’ all took part.

We now have 35 children playing an instrument – thats half the school!

Its not too late to join in – next year Owl class will be learning the violin and we have a new trumpet teacher as well as peripatetic teachers in piano and violin, cello, flute and clarinet. Eyam school also boasts a ukulele group, bells performers, recorders, the school band AND the school choir as well!

Come and see Eyam School – this project shows you what we are all about …. team work, dedication, vision and fun

We are proud to be an Eco School

With your support and the fantastic Auction held in March 2016 we have been able to turn this

into this! Then by working as a team it developed into this and this and this and finally this and this and this! and this wow!

We formally opened the new garden play space in July with a wonderful village tea party. On the new stage there were performances by the school choir and band, the recorders and ukulele group as well as maypole dancing and routines by the Felicity White school of dance. The raised beds provided seating as well as host of fresh vegetables and flowers and the children sold craft items as well as running a host of summer activities such as a coconut shy, beat the goalie and guess the sweets in the jar! The brownies ran games and of course there was plenty of tea and homemade cake.

This was not a fundraiser but a huge thank you – the children then used the stage for their end of term play ‘Mystery at Magpie Mine’ and as you can see the space is used for a range of events by everyone in school including a sunny lunch spot.

Boffin Joel carried out lots of experiments: He kept a match alight through making oxygen with Hydrogen peroxide, washing up liquid and potassium iodine.

He also used sodium poly acrylate crystals to show us that liquid can quickly become a solid and not pour over Mr Wright’s head!

A favourite was the air pressure waves that made the toilet paper fly up even though the air source was facing downwards.

Hedge hogs had been making a Science projects at home and told us all about them in Worship – what a lot they already know!

As well as going to Chesterfield to climb the corked tower and learn about the windless mechanism, Owls made models back at school and have started designing their own fair ground rides.

At the end of Science week Science Fair for parents to see our topic work the Squirrel class children also explained how they had been testing various materials for their strength, conductivity, water proof qualities and sound proofing – showing results in arrange of ways including scatter graphs, charts and well constructed explanations and conclusions. They have also carried out online video research to compare and recommend the use of plastic and glass bottles – all linked to our Eco topic on waste and the 3Rs.

And to finish the project all the Infants visited Chatsworth House to study the fabulous dress designs – Hedgehogs have spent the half term considering various types of design so to see famous articles and dresses was a grand finale!